IT’S shaping up to be an exciting year for Dalby district producers the McVeigh family’s cotton growing operation.
Not only will they be putting a portion of crop over to a dryland scenario for the first time but they are eagerly awaiting the arrival of their new John Deere 7760 picker – a machine which produces round modules leading to a system that is set to transform in-paddock handling.
As well, the family has been in close contact with Queensland Cotton, believing their longstanding relationship with the Dalby gin will accommodate the new-style packages when harvest gets under way next year.
In the meantime, Paul McVeigh this week has been over-seeing pupae-busting operations where a chisel plough forms an integral part of the property’s Bollgard management programme.
A 10m wide implement, the plan is to conserve moisture by performing at a suitable depth for ensuring an effective pupae bust.
Interestingly, on the back of a wet winter, the property is trying to accelerate its mid-year operations by applying urea and Starter –Z with a spreader, ahead of their pupae bust work.
With “not a huge amount of water” available for the coming season, nevertheless the expectation is of being set up for a good start.
“Obviously, like most other growers, we are always wanting more (rain),” Mr McVeigh said.
“Talk about another El Nino is a little disappointing because we never seem to get a long run of La Ninas.”
That aside, planting, hopefully, will start in early October when the family’s combination flood and overhead irrigation systems are augmented by the family’s first dryland cotton crop.
While irrigated cotton has averaged four bales an acre during the past six seasons, the McVeighs are fairly confident their 1000acre dryland initiative will return 1.5 bales an acre.
Traditionally, the bulk of the 1500 acres of cotton grown on the property has been flood irrigated with some 200 acres benefiting from a centre pivot system.
The thinking is the family’s move to overhead irrigation systems can only but accelerate – in line with the objective of delivering greater water use efficiencies.
“One of the reasons for looking at the dryland cotton is that the latest varieties are so good, likewise the yield potential, also the overall quality,” Mr McVeigh said.
“We would like to see the price ‘kick a bit more’ but the bottom line, when doing the numbers against grain, is that cotton is still the best returning commodity we can grow.”
In the meantime, Mr McVeigh also talked up the “unsung heroes of the paddock,” principally industry researchers, also CSIRO’s plant breeders.
“They have done such a wonderful job with their breeding programmes,” he said.
“And while farming techniques have changed, adding 10 to 15 percent to our yields, the industry’s success owes much to our researchers and scientists.”
Once this year’s cotton crop is in the ground, the focus of attention will switch to the previously mentioned arrival of the family’s new John Deere round module builder.
“From a farming point of view, they are going to totally revolutionise in-field operations,” Mr McVeigh said.
Due to arrive in October, ready for delivery in the new year, there’s no doubt the big challenge will be how the bales will be unwrapped at the feeder bays inside each ginning complex.
In this instance it will be the Queensland Cotton facility at Dalby.
With 100 percent of the McVeigh’s cotton business transacted with Queensland Cotton, the family believes the close relationship it has formed with the company over many years will come into play in the form of a smooth transition towards handling the new technology.
“This (round module) development will take a few years to bed in – as did the transition to the (stationary) module builders when they arrived on the scene,” Mr McVeigh said.
He says all gins will be working out how to feed the bales quickly into their processing systems.
Having eliminated contamination by removing nylon ropes, the issue of being able to re-use the wrapping surrounding each bale looks to be a top-of-mind issue for the season ahead.
“Wrapping is very expensive – a significant cost/bale,” Mr McVeigh said.
“The challenge is to see if the plastic wraps can be re-rolled, picked up and returned to the pickers.”
The “next generation” of the McVeigh family is said to be “pretty keen” to see how their new 7760 picker performs in the paddock. The expectation is that its cost will be ameliorated by carrying out some contract work in the district.
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